UK quartet PIPE is an entity that was and is totally unknown to me. To my knowledge they have released one album, “Would That It Were”, issued through a label called Rubber Ready Records. Band as well as label have a low profile on the internet, and any further information appears to be hard to come by without spending a bit of time on such a project.

I came to get this production on my hands while attending the Fruits de Mer Records all day festival in London in the summer of 2008, this album one of several handouts given to all those who attended. As I tend to do in such cases I filed this album for a future review, so that at least something good could come from the generosity of whoever donated material to what was described as a goodie bag.

In this case it’s a nice little goodie too, at least for the right audience. Whatever that might be, as this is a production that sports a number of peculiar details. There is a basis of sorts though, or perhaps I might describe it as constant reminders, that this is a band that does know their 60’s and 70’s garage rock, and I kind of suspect that these guys aren’t strangers to bands such as The Who and The Doors. The latter more in approach than sound I might add, the constant use of keyboards and sometime use of it by way of organ my main reason for tossing in that particular reference. But at the core this is an album that resides in a garage rock oriented landscape somewhere, with compact, energetic guitar motifs as a key element.

There is room for gentler guitar details too, and fairly often there’s a distinct psychedelic sheen to at least some of the sounds the guitar provides in the songs. Occasionally the compositions have a closer total resemblance to hard rock, at least in intensity, and concluding track Oh Yeah even brings some slide guitar to the proceedings unless I’m much mistaken.

What sets this band somewhat apart from others is that they do incorporate a few additional bits and pieces to their sound. Psychedelic dripping keyboard movements make occasional appearances, some of the driving drums and bass backbone gave me associations to new wave while others, combined with the guitars, made the expression post punk pop into my mind. And in the case of Looking For Somebody, a bit of ska is added to the palette used as well.

Garage rock liberally flavored with details from 80’s UK rock is perhaps a summary of the music you’ll find on Pipe’s, to my knowledge, sole album “Would That It Were”. A production that probably merits an interest in garage rock and psychedelic rock to be enjoyed, as well as a certain fascination for 80’s alternative and indie UK rock I guess.

My rating: 69/100